A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

A very old man with Enormous wing is a story written in magical realism. It critiques the societal people’s behaviours. The story contains realistic setting with other magical elements.

       Pelayo’s house was with full of the crabs as it had been raining for three days. He had been cleaning the crabs from the house. His children had a fever and they believed that it happened due to rain and smell. After throwing the crab, as he was on the way to house, he noticed an unusual movement and groaning. He went closer and noticed an old man with enormous wings lying on the mud. Being frightened, he went to call his wife who was compressing her child. Both of them observed the man, who dressed like rag picker. He had few faded hair and few teeth. Though they were surprise, they found him familiar. It seemed that the man was knocked down in a shipwreck. They decided to called their neighbours, who was believed to know everything. She informed them that he could be an angel, who had been there for the child; however, he was knocked down by the rain.

       Pelayo had captivated the angel. They used to believe that angels were the escaped survivors of spiritual conspiracy. Therefore the man was dragged and imprisoned in chicken coop. The very day the child got up and desired to eat. Hence, they felt pity on him and put some cold water and made their mind to put him on his own fate. The next day the coop was surrounded by neighbours and they were having fun with the man. Though they did not have any respect for the man, they were tossing food to him.

       Having known the news Father Gonzaga, the local priest arrived to inspect the man. Before he declared that he was no more an angel as he could not reply the language of the God, Latin; people had their own opinions. Father viewed him as more like human. He even alarmed people that it could be an evil’s carnival trick to confuse the unwary. Nevertheless, he promised to write to Pope for the final verdict.

       The news spread so quickly that the place became over crowed. The troops had to be called to clear the mob of the market place. Elisenda was tired of sweeping and had an idea to fence the yard and asked the people to get the ticket to see the man and they would earn the money.

       Hearing the news, a carnival with a flying acrobat came there. He buzzed many times to the crowd; however, they did not notice him as his wings were different than that of the man. There arrived many carnivals with unusual narration. Though other people were unhappy with the incident, Pelayo and Elisenda were happy as they had got huge sum of money. The angel had nothing to do with it. He had lots of pain. He tried to comfort himself from hellish heat of the oil lamps and sacramental candles. He was fed with meatballs as per the advice of the wise woman. He neither ate the meatballs nor the papal lunches. He only ate eggplant mush. It made them confused whether he was angel or an old man. He had only a supernatural quality that he had patience. He was so patience on the first days though chicken pecked stellar parasite from wings that had proliferation of the wings. People were surprised to observe his patience. They started throwing stones at him. They burnt him with hot iron rod. It pained him and finally he flapped his wings. It made whirlwind in the coop. It made people realised he was alive and frightened them, too.

       Father Gonzaga repressed the insensibility of the crowd. He was eagerly waiting the response of the mail. But, Rome had not shown any urgency. They just had indifference towards the priest’s tribulation. At the meantime, many carnivals arrived. A spider woman, who was the attraction of the town, came. People came to know that she had such unusual appearance as she had sneaked out of her parents, house to go for dance and got struck of lightening, which has changed her spider. She only got feeding of meatballs, which feet to her mouth. There were more miracles had happened: a blind man grow teeth instead of sight, a paralytic won lottery though he couldn’t walk; Gonzaga got complete cure of insomnia. Finally the crowd emptied the place but it did not matter to the owner of the house.

       They had built a two-story mansion with balconies and garden. The crab could not enter the house. They had iron bars on the window to prevent angels get in. Elisenda bought nice dresses. The thing they did not care was the coop. they were afraid at the beginning regarding the safety of their child when he started walking. They were concerned that the child should not enter the coop. Later they ignored about it. One the child entered the coop. Both the angel and the child got chickenpox. The doctor, who came to treat the child, could not resist the temptation to listen the heart beat and heard the sound of heart and kidneys, which made almost impossible to survive. Nevertheless, he came to know that they were the same of human beings. Pelayo threw blanket to the angel and let him sleep in shed. The husband and wife saw the angel in different places of the house and thought it had its reproduction.  They thought that it would die. However, the angel had temperature and got his feathers in his wings though he remained silent. He was so careful that nobody should notice such changes. One day, Elisenda sensed the wind that blew to the kitchen while she was chopping the onion. She saw angle was trying to fly. Finally, he flew and she notice him till she could see the sight.

Theme of the story: A very Old man with Enormous wings  

The thematic aspect is the story to present social realism though it has elements of magical realism. It presents the coexistence of compassion and cruelty of people. The people have mixed opinion regarding the presence of the old man. They even throw stones as well as they give some food. Palayo takes it out from the mud. It depicts his compassion. He also puts him in coop. It may be because of his fear. Nevertheless, it is a brutal behaviour that captivates other. In the same line, he threw blanket to him at the end of the story. It presents feeble response of selfish and greed of human beings. The husband and wife decided to take five cents as ticket to see the angel. It depicts the greed of people. After having a long sum of money, they built the house, but they did not care about the coop. It also questions the religiosity of people. It critically examines religiosity and opines religiosity is a shallow set of believes and ignores the principle of morality.

 

A very old Man with Enormous Wings as a story of magical reality:

A story in magical realism incorporates fantastic or mythical elements with other realistic fiction. It has a belief of transformation of common and every day condition to amazing unreal condition. It has realistic setting with magical elements. The information are limited and critiques the society. It has unique plot.

       The story has a realistic setting as Pelayo is picking the crab and throwing it out. As the house is at the beach it is possible that the house may get the problems of crabs. Elisenda is compressing her sick child. As he returns house he finds the man with wings. Is it not a fantastic or mythical thing? Can a man have a wing? The story does not have detail information about the arrival of the man. It has a little information about him. The child automatically recovers at the first and desires to eat but later a doctor has to be called. It critiques the people behaviours as they tortured the man. The man flying in the sky.